As long as we have free speech, gun rights, an aversion to involuntary institutionalization, and a society not yet as neutered as Canada and Europe, we’re gonna have mass shootings. And yes, there will be spikes both real (the March ’98 to May ’99 school shooting wave) and imagined (“Two in one day! It’s statistically impossible!”). As Steve Sailer recently pointed out on Twitter, in the ’60s and ’70s political assassinations seemed to be the new norm in America. Then the spike just tapered off. Sometimes the ebb comes as suddenly as the flow, and if you think you’re in the middle of a flow, it really is best to hold your damn fudge and retain perspective.
That doesn’t mean do nothing. There are all kinds of precautions that can be taken to reduce the carnage caused by mass shootings. But if you’re trying to find “the cause” or “the answer,” you’re wasting your time.
In fact, you might even be approaching the issue from the wrong perspective. You’re searching for the bad things about this country that create mass shooters. Perhaps instead you should be considering the possibility that mass shootings are actually by-products of the good things about the U.S.—gun rights, free speech, and a system that favors individual freedom over public safety when it comes to mental health.
You believe in utopia? Go be a communist. In the real world, no society is perfect and you have to accept the bad with the good. It’s like the song “Pennies From Heaven.” Rain is the price we pay to have flowers, so don’t start building an ark just because we got two cloudbursts in one day. Mass shootings are still rare, and violent crime in general is down across the board in the U.S.
